The tab portion of cans may be configured to contain advertising indicia or other marks. This indicia may be created in various ways, including painting, printing, laser etching, and laser marking. These methods of creating indicia are known and include etching a material strip before the strip is cut and pressed into a tab and printing a negative image of indicia on a material strip. Known methods may rely on the intermittent motion of the material strip prior to entering a press machine.
One of the challenges in marking the material strip prior to it entering the press machine is handling the material in a way that avoids scratching the material as the strip passes to the press. Methods of handling other materials, such as can making stock and silicon wafers are known. For example, one known method of handling long material stock strips uses long rails on plates that sit on either side of the material stock such that the strip contacts the rails in areas of the strip where scratching is not apparent on the final product. Another known method for handling silicon wafers includes the use of a Bernoulli grip so that wafers float on an air stream while passing against a vertical plate.